Spotlight on reducing NI crime

A conference aimed at finding ways of reducing crime levels is being held by the Police Service of Northern Ireland today.

Police were linking up at the Antrim gathering with members of District Policing Partnerships, Community Safety Partnerships and local district councils to explore ways of improving people’s quality of life by cutting crime.

The conference, “Your community – Your Concern“, has been organised by rural and urban regions of the PSNI.

It is focusing on the National Intelligence Model which has been placed by the British government at the centre of the police reform agenda across the whole of the UK.

The NIM ensures that information is fully researched, developed and analysed to provide intelligence which enables senior police managers to provide strategic direction, make tactical resourcing decisions about operational policing and manage risk.

Assistant Chief Constable Peter Sheridan, one of the co-hosts of the conference, said: “The National Intelligence Model is an important tool in helping us to achieve our objective in making Northern Ireland safer for everyone.”

At the conference police would be working with the DPPs and council staff from five rural and five urban policing districts to focus on local problems, he said.

“These will include criminal damage, domestic violence, theft from vehicles, road safety, alcohol-related assaults and vandalism,” he said.

It was a very practical event where police District Commanders would work with others with a stake in tackling crime and quality of life problems through working in partnership, he said.

“The aim is to give those taking part an improved understanding of how the police tackle crime, of the roles and responsibilities of all the key local stakeholders and of how to identify ways to tackle local problems,” said ACC Sheridan.

The guest speaker is Professor Gloria Laycock, director of the internationally acclaimed Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science.